Friday, February 22, 2019

Just A Coincidence: Food & Real Estate + Mesa Vice Mayor Mark Freeman Gets A Feature

Just like staff writers for mainstream media like to write 'could be' or 'might be' just a serendipity - and just a coincidence in the timing - all over again when your MesaZona blogger got a feed on this from Urban Land Institute 
Food & Real Estate
ULI’s Food and Real Estate Project explores the mutually beneficial relationship between food-based amenities—such as working farms, community gardens, food halls, restaurants, and grocery stores—and real estate. It highlights how the growing interest in and awareness of fresh, local food is spurring innovation in development projects.
_______________________________________________________________
What's that "Farm-to-Table" Mantra all about anyway?
_________________________________________________________________________________
19 February 2019
District 1 Mesa City Councilmember Mark Freeman Gets A Feature Story
https://mesazona.blogspot.com/2019/02/district-1-mesa-city-councilmember-mark.html 
To be honest, your MesaZona blogger was bowled over by just one more what appears to be yet another "planted-story" in mainstream media so soon after Mark Freeman was named Vice-Mayor. The feature was accompanied by 7 images of Freeman taken on a 1-acre plot of land at the SWC of Brown Road/Center Street that adjoins the Fitch Family Farm Homestead. The small parcel is irrigated by old open canal ditches. It is closely surrounded by larger parcels of real estate development to create family fortunes . . .
The land itself is lucrative, too, though more for what's to come than for what is planted there now. 
Here's an easy-to-see time-lapse of the explosive expansion of Suburbia into what once were agriculture lands here in Maricopa County taken over by the Real Estate/Industrial Complex from 1900-2010.
It does not include the 3,600 acres in east Mesa, formerly the General Motors Proving Grounds, where new massive secluded suburban enclaves of Master-Planned Communities Eastmark and Cadence at Gateway are being built.
No mention of the new wealth for more family fortunes in suburban real estate speculation and development East Valley communities, instead we get this assertion from Freeman: "like Mesa's Eastmark and Gilbert's Agritopia, [they] already have embraced urban farming. . . " HUH?
_________________________________________________________________________
Reports

 
Agrihoods: Cultivating Best Practices 
2018
Inspired by a growing body of evidence that developments centered on working farms can have a positive effect on human health, environmental sustainability, and real estate performance, Agrihoods: Cultivating Best Practices identifies strategies to aid developers and their partners in planning, creating, and operating single-family, multifamily, or mixed-use communities built with a working farm as a focus.
 
 
 

 
cultivatingdevelopment_cover_mmThis publication explores how developers are integrating food-based amenities—such as farms, gardens, food halls, restaurants, and grocery stores—within projects, thereby generating real estate value and benefits for people and the planet.
 
 
 

 
 
 
at

Rogue Columnist Jon Talton Created A Hot Thread Re-Posting "Phoenix 101: The Mormons"

Jon Talton first posted his column back on June 23, 2009. Ten years and six months later Talton re-posted his primer in a post on Facebook on Arizona Memories just 23 hours ago:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/AZmemories/permalink
"An admin turned off commenting for this post"

 
Jon Talton shared a link to the group: Arizona Memories.
23 hrs
 
The name "Mormon" is now frowned upon by the LDS leadership. But here's my primer on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and their influence on metro Phoenix:

Phoenix 101: The Mormons
The Arizona Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in…


15 Comments 
________________________________________________________________________________
". . . The Mormons were revered among the great Arizona pioneers. They were known for their generosity, including to "gentiles," [Laminates] something our family experienced. Mormons were hard-working, reliable, self-reliant, patrons of education and the arts. Mesa in those days was a beautiful small city, a monument to the energy and far-sightedness of its LDS founders. We would regularly drive down neat and prosperous Main Street to see the beautiful Arizona Temple. The Mormon kids with whom I went to high school were among the most talented in one of the country's top high-school fine arts program.
The Mormons were also powerful. That was clear even at an early age
. . .  Mormons market themselves as Protestants, but they're not. LDS theology, which is intriguing, is based on continuing revelation . . . The LDS faith is different in many other ways, and compelling to millions. It's an American-born creed that is growing fast around the world. But it is generally opposed to equality of the sexes in the sense many modern Americans would understand it, and some lapsed Mormon women ("jack Mormons") tell horror stories. Well, every denomination has its problems and critics.
> The mainsteam LDS doesn't cover itself with glory on the issue of polygamy.
While it condemns the practice and excommunicates members who practice it, the church seems to have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. At times, it appears more interested in protecting its image than addressing the problem.
> Arizona Gov. Howard Pyle was defeated for re-election, largely because of mainstream Mormon unhappiness with the state's 1953 raid on the Short Creek polygamy community. The hamlet changed its name to Colorado City. We now know that polygamy isn't like Big Love. It involves child rape, welfare fraud, the banishment of young men who would compete with the powerful old bulls. It may never be stamped out. But there's always the sense that the main LDS wants us to look away.
In Arizona, the Mormons seem to have changed, and of course some of this is seeing things through the eyes of an adult who had been out in the big world, and whose job involves looking under rocks. Still...
Sweet, neat, industrious Mesa has been abandoned to blight, while Mormons with means made an exodus to the sprawl of Gilbert and Chandler and all the "master planned communities." That's sad. What's more portentous is the melding of the Mormons with the agenda of the far right. Given general voter apathy and the dependability of the Saints, this has given the LDS control over the Legislature, which has given them control over the state.
Not for nothing was a trip to Salt Lake City and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles among the first things on Michael Crow's agenda on taking over as president of ASU.
_________________________________________________________________________________
> The Saints becoming the base of the Arizona Republican Party has resulted in odd outcomes, in some ways different from even Utah and in dissonance with many LDS tenets.
For example, the right in metro Phoenix was apoplectic against light rail, while the church in Utah insisted it be built there.
> The Mormons were always community builders and strong supporters of education. Not in central Arizona, where the right's politics are division and nihilism, if not outright calls for violence.
> Somehow the natural bent of any persecuted religion to tribalism -- uncorrected by pluralism, education and self-interest -- is enhanced by all the walls and gates of the suburbs.
> The virulent anti-immigrant stance of prominent Mormon politicians in the East Valley is starkly at odds with the church's missionary zeal in developing nations and among all people. I have heard through decent sources that the Salt Lake bigs aren't happy with all that the East Valley bigs stand for. Still...
The economic power of the church is one of the great un-done stories by the Information Center (although the Arizona Republic may have examined this years ago, it deserves an update and ongoing scrutiny).
Its vast land-holdings gave, and give, it a major say in the regional economy.
The Mormon farmers of the East Valley got rich selling off the land for subdivisions -- destroying the cooling miles of citrus and fields -- and ensuring the freeway system was built there early and thoroughly.
Yet the chuch has not used its power to build a diversified economy as it has in Utah.
_________________________________________________________________________________
> On a level that seems smaller, but looms large, are the tribal business ties between LDS businessmen and their patrons or proteges in the state Legislature.
This surfaced momentarily in the infamous "alt-fuels" scandal, where LDS legislators and businessmen appeared to disproportionately profit from the tax-subsidized conversion of vehicles (which did nothing to help the environment). This was quickly swept under assorted rugs, carpets, runners and mats, unhindered by an incurious press.
It is a serious question in the Legislature's ongoing effort to defund the public schools and steer money to favored businessmen in the charter schools racket.
____________________________
> Readers of this blog might like to note that Craig Harris has published a series of reports - more than 9 years after Rogue Columnist Jon Talton's Primer that's proving to be prescient about conservative Mesa Mormon Republican Eddie Farnsworth, an owner and operator of charter schools who's making millions . . . In the image above we see former AZ State Senator Bob Worsley and Jerry Lewis , employed by Sequoia Charter Schools and the EdKey Corporation.
In spite of getting endorsed by both former Mesa Mayor Scott and current mayor John Giles to gain a seat on the Mesa City Council, he was defeated in the unsuccessful contest.
_________________________________________________________________________
> The LDS was always a big part of Arizona history. Today its power seems even greater. It's too bad that it appears to have veered off track, into an unbreakable veto elite that can stop progress but offer nothing to really address the metro area's monumental challenges, into a too-reliable partner and enabler of extremists, into something that plays into the cabal paranoia of those who fear and hate the Mormons.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Talton ends that Rogue Columnist post from 2009 on an optimistic note:
I write this and then am reminded of Ira Fulton. Although he did his share of sprawl, he is among metro Phoenix's greatest philanthropists -- and at a time when fewer and fewer existed. He's given away hundreds of millions of dollars. A few years ago, I asked him why more of Arizona's most powerful people didn't do the same, how much of a difference it would make. Standing strong despite his cane, he said in a folksy voice, "Well, we're going to make that happen." Maybe so. The company he started ended up in bankruptcy court, another casualty of the crash. The good he built in the community, such as at ASU, endures. And it reminds us that the Saints shouldn't be pigeon-holed. It makes me long for more of their old independence."
Think "there's no history here"? Read the Phoenix 101 archive.
_________________________________________________________________________________
at

Viva La Cultura Hecho Aqui En Mesa! For Everyone In A Public Park

Festival of Masks celebrates the diverse cultures that make up our neighborhoods!
Here's your chance - and opportunity - to get more inter-active and engaged in more of the most creative cultural coalitions developing over the years here in Mesa. Everyone welcome
Public &
_______________________________________________________________________
Cultural Coalition, Inc's photo.




Come experience an artistic engagement-family gathering featuring giant puppets, mask performers and celebrating the cultural diversity of our community!
Free and open to all ages!
Local dance, music and theater companies will demonstrate the power of the Mask to transform the actors, as well as the audience.
Performances will include:
-Chinese Lion dancers
-Mexican folklórico dancers and Mariachis
-African music and dancers
-Japanese Taiko and Brazilian Capoeira drummers.

Kids Art Activities and food trucks!
Bring your whole family for an afternoon you won't forget!!
www.culturalcoalition.com
________________________________________________________________________________
NOTE: Seeking vendors, performers and artists
If you would like to participate at the festival, please email to >
culturalcoalition@gmail.com

 
at

Smart Kid: Patagonia Town Marshall Got Busted by Video Upload

Patagonia Town Marshall
Joe Patterson
Here's a good lesson for all of us: KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
Here's the story from Nogales International  via Twitter:
Town says it's 'taken action' after marshal's encounter with young journalist
_________________________________________________________________________________
According to an October 2017 profile in The New York Times, Lysiak, who was 10 at the time, began covering family news on notecards soon after she turned 6. With the help of her father, a former reporter with The New York Daily News, she later began publishing a newspaper focusing on events in her hometown of Selinsgrove, Pa. that inspired a series of Scholastic chapter books based on her experiences.
at

Almost 4 Years Online / Heading to 222,000 Page-Views

Yup! Really . . . See for yourself
Everyone is invited to enjoy hyper-local news, information and who knows what else on this Table of Contents
Something to tickle your appetites
Side-Dishes, main courses and just desserts right here from Downtown Mesa > Enjoy!
Total Pageviews
Sparkline 221142
at

Here In Mesa: Dexcom ReStructuring To Cost Job Loss

Back in May 2017 Mayor John Giles was clapping his clapping his hands and celebrating. Yesterday, there was this news from Market Exclusive.com
DexCom, Inc. (NASDAQ:DXCM) Files An 8-K Results of Operations and Financial Condition
By ME Staff 8-k 
RESULTS OF OPERATIONS AND FINANCIAL CONDITION.
On February21, 2019, DexCom, Inc. (“DexCom”) issued a press release announcing its financial results for the quarter ended December31, 2018and certain other information.
This press release has been furnished as Exhibit 99.01 to this report and is incorporated herein by this reference.
. . . but first a Flashback!
_________________________________________________________________________
READERS OF THIS BLOG MIGHT REMEMBER SOME DOUBTS EXPRESSED IN THIS POST FROM JUNE 16, 2016
16 June 2016
Update > Dexcom Gambles On Move to Mesa Fiesta District > Volatile Stock Performance/Heavy Insider Trading
According to a report in Plastics Today on June 22, 2016 manufacturing operations in the 180,000-square-foot facility are expected to commence by the second quarter of 2017. . . Mesa Mayor John Giles told KJJZ.org that the city is offering to pay Dexcom $750 for each Mesa resident it hires. The incentive is capped at 300 hires, which would represent a total cost to the city of $225,000. The company projects creating more than 500 jobs over the next several years. 
Dexcom (Nasdaq: DXCM), a San Diego-based continuous glucose monitoring manufacturer, is taking a 216,000-square-foot building on South Dobson Road near Loop 101 in Mesa’s Fiesta District.
Source: Phoenix Business Journal Eric Jay Toll Reporter
Phoenix Business Journal

Likewise for reference are two over-the-top "good news" stories
READ MORE >> MesaZona 16 June 2016
_________________________________________________________________________
Story image for Dexcom, mesa az from AZCentral.com
More than 700 new jobs coming to Mesa
AZCentral.com-May 8, 2017
Mesa and Arizona leaders join Dexcom CEO Kevin Sayer at a ribbon-cutting event for the company's new Mesa facility on April 25, 2017. (Photo11: Dexcom).
 
Story image for Dexcom, mesa az from Phoenix Business Journal
Dexcom adding 500 jobs in Mesa
Phoenix Business Journal-Apr 14, 2017
Dexcom Inc. (Nasdaq: DXCM), a San Diego-based manufacturer of ... where a select number of employers got a chance to see why Arizona would be a good ...
_________________________________________________________________________________
Back to the Market Exclusive press release:
On February 20, 2019, DexCom’s Board of Directors committed DexCom to a restructuring plan that will result in the transition of certain of DexCom’s operations to the Philippines (the “Restructuring”). The Restructuring is designed to reduce operating expenses to improve cost competitiveness, enable strategic flexibility and increase the scalability of certain business functions.
DexCom expects the Restructuring to impact approximately 350 full time employees, or approximately 13% of DexCom’s total full time workforce as of December 31, 2018. The Restructuring also will impact DexCom’s employment or hiring of full-time temporary employees. Most of the affected employees currently work in DexCom’s facilities in San Diego, California and Mesa, Arizona.
DexCom currently estimates that it will incur pre-tax charges and costs of approximately $25 million, primarily related to severance, other one-time termination benefits, and related restructuring facilitation costs. Of these charges, DexCom expects a majority to be cash-based primarily related to severance and termination related benefits. These costs are primarily expected to be incurred throughout 2019 and DexCom expects to record the majority of the charges in the first half of 2019. DexCom expects the majority of the Restructuring activities to be completed by the end of 2019.
DEXCOM INC ExhibitEX-99.01 2 dxcmq4201899-1.htm EXHIBIT 99.01 Exhibit Exhibit 99.01Dexcom Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2018 Financial ResultsThe Company also Announces Expansion and Reorganization of its Customer Support FunctionsSAN DIEGO,…
To view the full exhibit click here
_______________________________________________________________
About DexCom, Inc. (NASDAQ:DXCM)
Dexcom, Inc. (Dexcom) is a medical device company. The Company is focused on the design, development and commercialization of continuous glucose monitoring systems for ambulatory use by people with diabetes and for use by healthcare providers for the treatment of people with and without diabetes. Its products include SEVEN PLUS, DexCom G4, DexCom G4 PLATINUM, DexCom Share System and DexCom G5 Mobile. It had received Conformite Europeene Marking (CE Mark) approval for its fourth generation continuous glucose monitoring system, the DexCom G4 system, enabling commercialization of the DexCom G4 system. DexCom SHARE enables users of its G4 PLATINUM System to have their sensor glucose information remotely monitored by their family or friends. The G4 PLATINUM Receiver with Share uses a secure wireless connection via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) between a patient’s receiver and a mobile application on the patient’s iPhone to transmit glucose information.
 
_______________________________________________________________
Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer
The foregoing disclosures constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements are preliminary estimates and expectations based on current information and are subject to business and economic risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or actual future results to differ materially from the expectations set forth in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause results to differ materially from the statements herein include: DexCom’s ability to implement the Restructuring as currently planned; possible changes in the size and timing of the Restructuring; the components and amount of the expected costs and charges associated with the Restructuring; the timing of the payment of the expected costs and charges; the timing of recording the expected charges and costs; and risks associated with DexCom’s ability to achieve the benefits of the Restructuring.You should refer to the section entitled “Risk Factors” set forth in DexCom’s annual and quarterly reports and other filings DexCom makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time for a discussion of important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by DexCom’s forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this Current Report. DexCom undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements or reasons why actual results might differ, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
at

Tinder In The AZ State House: Flame-Outs + Slews of Bills Left-To-Die


Hey! Your MesaZona is busy enough already getting a grip on the Mesa City Council - never mind what Arizona State makers-of-laws have up-their-sleeves!
The session ends today. Let the fun begin . . .
Arizona lawmakers introduced 1,289 bills this session.
Proposed bills that never received hearings died silently in the Arizona Legislature this week, the last week for committees to hear bills in their chamber of origin.
_________________________________________________________________________
ERA, criminal justice reform, legislative immunity bills
left to die
By: Katie Campbell, Carmen Forman, Ben Giles and Dillon Rosenblatt February 22, 2019
 
Story image for mesa arizona from Arizona Capitol Times
ERA, criminal justice reform, legislative immunity bills left to die
Arizona Capitol Times-3 hours ago
Arizona lawmakers introduced 1,289 bills this session, but a slew has already ... Mark Finchem of Oro Valley and Kelly Townsend of Mesa were never even ...
Here are some choice excerpts:
Among them is the push to repeal legislative immunity, which made headlines when it deliberately stalled in the House because Speaker Rusty Bowers declined to move the measure forward.
But other notable legislation, including Arizona’s attempt to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, several criminal justice reform measures, also hit a wall.
 
Red for Ed supporters, however, can rejoice because a series of controversial bills targeting educators had not been assigned to committees yet, spelling their apparent doom.
Ideas contained in dead bills could still be revived via amendments later in the legislative process, but their likelihood of success is just as grim.
Equal Rights Amendment
Arizona could have been the final state to adopt the amendment.
Perhaps the most high profile legislation that failed to get committee hearings before the deadline carried national implications for women.
Arizona Democrats failed in their third attempt to push the Legislature to vote on ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, which seeks to amend the U.S. Constitution to bar discrimination on account of sex.
WHY?
Democrats lost a key ally when freshman Sen. Tyler Pace withdrew his support on January 31. Two other Republicans in the chamber had expressed support for the measure, and, along with Tyler’s backing, Democrats would have had the votes to pass ERA in the Senate.
In the end, the number of floor votes didn’t matter because the ERA bills never got a hearing in Senate Judiciary, which is chaired by Sen. Eddie Farnsworth. In the House, Rusty Bowers never assigned the legislation to a committee. 
__________________________________________________________________________
In God We Trust
Public outrage – local and national – was not enough to sustain Mendez’s bill that sought to repeal the statute authorizing “In God We Trust” specialty license plates.
Almost a year before session began, the Secular Coalition of Arizona enlisted the Democratic senator’s help in revealing that the license plates help fund an organization that the atheist group says attacks the LGBT community.
Mendez, D-Tempe found out from the Arizona Department of Transportation that the “In God We Trust” specialty plates are funding the Alliance Defending Freedom, which The New York Times described as the largest legal force of the religious right.
But Mendez’s SB1463 never got a committee hearing
at
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)